Red Corn Grits

During our Southern Foodways Alliance celebration event, which was held here at Blackberry Farm last week, our executive chef Cassidee Dabney featured“Bloody Butcher grits which were ground from the variety raised here on our farm. Bloody Butcher is a red corn featuring deep red kernels. When lookingat this corn it’s not hard to imagine how it got its name. When milled into grits the color is a striking pinkish hue which hinds itself well in termsof alternative color and flavor.

Another example of a colorful corn would be the Hopi Blue Corn, which is used for making Blue tortilla chips. Going back in time to the earlier days ofcorn’s history, most of the corn was what we today refer to as “Indian Corn”. When examining an ear of Indian corn we see a vast number of colors and mottlingon the kernels.

It is not until later years that corn as we think of it today came into being. For the most apart we think of corn as being either yellow or white. Thestudy of the history of corn is a fascinating one, and as farmers and chefs at Blackberry Farm we love making use of the diversity that has been handeddown to us by our ancestors.

Master Gardener, John Coykendal